I called Hector, my osteopath this morning and managed to get an early appointment with him. It turns out that I have a slipped disc. It took a couple of goes, but he got it back in and I can walk again :D Phil has been ferrying me around as I couldn't even drive!
Rosie is back with me after Boxing Day with her dad; she is full of seasonal spirit and is busy investigating her pressies, making the kits and reading the books. Phil and I had a lovely relaxing time at his parents place - eating a lovely meal and chatting away (well they did the chatting while I fell asleep as the pain had made me sleepy!).
We are busy looking after friends' houses - one lot are away for a few days and the house just needs checking, lights putting on etc. The other lot are away for 3 weeks and we are doing the same there, plus feeding and cuddling their cat. No hardship at all as she is soo sweet and cuddly.
We are busy eating up the Christmas leftovers, and will take Rosie to Milton Keynes to see the film Eragon later; she is reading the book and loves all things dragony.
What a lovely Christmas Day - the stove is roaring, the chicken is roasting, the hosue smells Christmassy, and I've done my back in!!!!!! It was really stupid, just lifting the chicken out of the oven to baste it *Grrrr*
Phil has been an angel and done all the lifting and stuff for me while I swallowed painkillers and tried to keep moving. Back pain aside, the lunch was wonderful, Ian (Rosie's dad) came over to join us and we had a festive time.
I'll come back to post some amusing piccies of Rosie in a couple of her pressies. In the meantime, here's something amusing to keep you occupied - turn the sound up and sing along...
http://thecompassgroup.biz/merryxmas.swf
Tomorrow Rosie is with her dad all day and we are going to Phil's folks for the day, popping in at my sister's on the way back. That's if I can get in and out of the car!!!
It was -3 this morning when I went to let the hens out and feed the bunnies, still thick fog (3rd consecutive day) and the lids of the wheelie bins were frozen down :roll:. It's quite pretty though; the box hedge outside the office has a lacy covering of frozen cobwebs, so even nasty spiders can be pretty sometimes.
We finish work at noon today, with wine, bacon butties and cakes in the conference room before going home. I want to clean out the Eglu and the bunnies when I get back. I hope to have a chance to go down into town briefly for a couple of things before going for a massage with Steve at 4pm, then home to wrap up pressies :D
I did a good clean last night (well, as good as you can do with boxes everywhere and the phone ringing!), hoovered the attic, which looks a bit better now, and the radiator there has stopped leaking now. Plenty of time to get festive now and prepare for Christmas.
I'll try to log on before then, but to everyone I know; have a lovely Christmas and new year (it's my birthday on the 1st), with lots of love
ClareXXXXX
How do you take your tea or coffee?
Submitted by Vasquez.
I never drink coffee; it makes me hyperactive. I have decaff tea, weak with half a sugar (weak and tastless like my men!)
..... I haven't uploaded the photos yet - serious lack of spare time and constant bothering in the office. But here they are:
I must apologise for the dust on the lens in the 2nd and last piccies - it was very messy up there! You can now see the front Velux window in situ (last photo) and at that stage the back window was being put in by Will; more of him in action in the videos below (excuse the jump in one of them, I nearly fell down the stairs):
I've had another electrician round this lunchtime to give me a quote for the work. Let's hope that he is reasonable - he did indicate that he'd be able to start work soon in the new year which is good.
On another front, I've been busy; I have filtered Phil's Sloe Gin and bottled it up - smells good, and I have designed a nice label to go on it. The raspberry vodka will be done on Christmas Eve as I am using the raspberries to make a boozy pavlova - reckon The Boy will spend all Christmas in a drunken stupor :roll: well, so long as he enjoys himself and is sober enough to do the washing up I don't mind. I've got most of the food in now, just need to check through it all. I'll do what I can in advance on Sunday and use Phil's fridge if necessary to store it. We will collect the chicken from Lesley and Carl's farm on Saturday so that will have to live in Phil's fridge too.
Biscuit excelled himself last night in being a total pest - he got a smacking in the end - he's entertaining, but there's a limit to my patience. He was attacking the Christmas tree, which now has no decorations on the bottom branches as I've moved them up out of reach, he was chewing on the light bulbs that he could reach and swinging on the strings of balls. This morning at 4.50am he woke me up to tell me that he'd brought in a nice big fat mouse for my breakfast, so downstairs I padded in my PJs to catch the poor little thing, put on my wellies and took the mouse down the garden to put safely in the woodpile - all this in temps of -2!!!!
Rosie is really excited about Christmas and can't wait - she is getting a new bike, which Ian and I are buying between us, and some other little bits too. She woke up this morning with a thick cold, it seems to be a head cold and isn't making her feel ill at all. She wanted to go to camp, so I let her go, but said no to swimming, which might be tempting fate with a cold. I hope that she gets better and is able to enjoy Christmas, and that I don't get it from her.
Still thick fog here, they have stopped some flights from Heathrow. Very cold too and damp feeling, I hate this sort of weather, I much prefer it to be warm and sunny, or even cold and sunny at a pinch.
Tonight I am going to bake two lemon drizzle cakes to take into work tomorrow - their favourites, and do a massive clean around the house. I hope to get an early night too.
On Friday, we finish work at lunchtime so I will head off home to clean out the chickens in preparation for their visit on Saturday from Emma and Mo, then I'm going for a massage with Steve before heading back home to wrap all the presents.
Well, after the optimism of last week, the work on the attic has come to a halt! The electrician came back to me (finally!) with a ridiculous quote so I have asked him to have a re-think and get back to me with one that won't cause heart failure :roll: So it's all on hold for a while now. I have borrowed Phil's industrial strength Vax to clear the house and the attic up as the top room is very dusty still. I now need to start again and phone round all the electricians I know to get them in to quote.
Biscuit is intent on destroying the beautiful Christmas tree, he has been up it on several occasions and is always trying to get the baubles and festoons off! Still, it was lovely last night with the stove roaring away and the tree lit up - so festive. I got some holly and mistletoe from the WI stall in the market on Saturday and adorned the front door with it, so the whole house looks festive now.
My folks came up on Saturday and we had a lovely roast chicken lunch - one of the chooks from Deddington farmers' market, Phil said that it tasted like 'chicken used to taste', which is nice. My father brought up his pressure washer, so I gave the Eglus a blast and they are good as new now - all sparkly and clean.
Biscuit made me laugh today - at lunchtime, I went to put the chooks back in their run and whistled for them to come, threw some corn in for them to follow, and Biscuit came vaulting over the fence, straight into the run and started eating the corn!!! Of course the chooks wouldn't go anywhere near it with him in there, so I had to drag him out and steer them in. He really is a nutter :lol:
It's the school hols, so Rosie is at club this week - she loves it and gets to go swimming every day.
I'll try to get those photos of the attic loaded up tonight.
Well, the main builders finished yesterday and the dirty work has been done (and my savings emptied!). I am now waiting for the electrician to get back to me with a quote so that I can fall over with shock and then book him in once we've pruned the quote. My regular plasterer, John, can now plaster on the Thursday before Christmas. So if I can get the sparky sorted out, then we're cooking on gas :D
Now both the windows are in, it looks so much more light and airy. I have some photos and footage, which I'll upload when I get a moment, but all my evenings at the moment are spent cleaning up all the dust and rubble!
Just heard from Rory at the police station that there's a party tonight - he'd asked the lads to let me know, but they forgot! too late to get a babysitter now :roll: Shame as it'd have been a good night out in the company of some big, hunky officers; I do like a man in uniform!
Biscuit was being a bit of a thug today and beating up Georgie - he's so physical and bigger than her now - the poor little scaredy puss doesn't stand a chance, what a rotter.
Rosie had her class party at school today, so we went in complete with her outfit (including sparkly fairy wings), homemade chocolate cake and some little sausages. Rather them than me, being in charge of 24 children all high on e-numbers and sugar!
Will add more and some photos later I hope
More positive today though :D
The weather is fine today, if windy and very cold, so the builders have been able to make a start of getting the windows installed - when I went back for lunch, they were hanging out of a hole in the roof and installing the front window. Rather them than me in this piercing wind! Currently just 4 degrees.
Better news from other contractors too - Will's electrician, Nick came round last night and had a look at the loft, he is confident that he'll be able to fit it in before Christmas, so if the quote is acceptable, I could be 'live and plastered' before the hols - sounds like a film title doesn't it? John, my usual plasterer has had a cancellation and would be able to plaster it on the Thursday before Christmas. Fingers are crossed, but I'm not counting my chickens.
Talking of chickens; Betty has now settled in well with the other girls and is growing like mad. She still chirps a lot, but her voice is starting to break and she makes the occasional rusty sounding cluck. Lesley reports that Herbert and Barnie are settling in well on the farm, I will try to get some photos of them at the weekend.
I am starting to feel really Christmassy now, especially as Rosie told me this morning that it's only 12 days to Christmas eve :D I love this time of year in spite of the cold - everyone is festive and happy, and we get time off work; can't be bad!
It's a shame that there are some problems that stop people from enjoying it though; there are the killings in Ipswich - 3 girsl murdered so far and two others missing and not accounted for, which is very sad. Also, I have been thinking of a couple of my friends, who are battling with depression. They know that I love and support them, I hope that they get the help that they need.
Well, where do I start? We had a hectic but lovely weekend in Ipswich. Having been up at 5am on Saturday to drive over to Jimmy's farm, I managed to get us lost through not paying attention when we were nearly there - that's usually Phil's job! Left home just after 6am and got there about 9.30, so good time really.
The farm is lovely - loads of animals running around, lots of good stalls and the people were all so nice. We were located in a gorgeous wooden barn, which was out of the wind but freezing cold despite heaters, thank goodness for thermals. It was weird recognising things that we'd seen on the TV. Phil bought a couple of yummy cakes and I bought a handmade basket for colecting eggs in - when I get some that is :roll:
Lots of other Omleteers and BHWT supporters turned up (see the photos) to support the cause and to keep us fed on Jimmy's delicious sausage baps and hot tea (there could've been more refreshment stalls, mind). At the end of a freezing day we had Jimmy himself over to draw the Organic Life raffle (which Kate won) and to pose for his photo with us. Buffie reckons that we've raised around £200 for the BHWT, which is fab, especially when it's done in the company of some great folks.
Phil and I headed back to the Travelodge for a kip and shower before meeting the others at the Novetel in Ipswich for a party. Dan had this 'brilliant' idea for us to get some booze on the way into town so that we could have a party in the room. Well, it would've been a brilliant idea if we could've found an off licence! There weren't any to be found and we clocked up 10 miles round the suburbs and ended up in an Aldi somewhere north of Ipswich. Heading back to the hotel, there wasn't anywhere to park, so we ditched the car about 1/2 a mile away and lugged the bottles (9 bottles of wine, 12 bottles of lager and some crisps) to the hotel, narrowly avoiding the hotel staff, who were giving us dirty looks! The party went well and got more raucous after the children had gone to bed with Buffie and Andrew demonstrating their flexibility and Buffster showing us her pretty frilly thong.
We had a heck of a problem getting back to the Travelodge as the police had closed off lots of roads after a murder in the area. Our motel was fab and worth booking as it was about a 1/4 of what the others paid in the Novetel, with a big, clean room and warm too.
The journey back was lovely; we started in brilliant sunshine and frost and made good time, but ran into cloud later. We got back about lunchtime to a freezing house as I'd turned the heating off while we were away, soon got the fire lit though.
Re progress on the attic..... well, not much going on at all today - the builder couldn't fit the Velux windows because it has been pouring with rain (so hope for better weather tomorow). The plasterer that they recommended got back to me with a quote, which was more than twice the other quotes I've had. So after I'd finished laughing, I told him no thanks, so I'm now on the look-out for a plasterer. I will call my usual chap, who isn't available until January and also a couple of numbers that Ian has given to me.
Views of the attic showing the rafters
Here are a couple of videos too showing the progress on the room, click on them to view - sorry about the poor lighting - it's not very good at the moment!
Finally, here's a lovely picture of Biscuit (the enormous kitten) warming his nose on the stove.
What a week this has been; busy at work, rubble and dust at home, feeling poorly.....
Never mind, it's the weekend tomorrow and I can't wait! We've got to be up early to get to Jimmy's farm, but it'll be worth it to see all our lovely friends and to support the BHWT.
I'm feeling much better today, but that was soon dampened by the electrician who is (supposed to be) doing the work in my attic - suffice to say that he won't be doing it now! I will NOT be messed around to that degree *Grrrr*. My lovely builder is now contacting his sparky to see if he can quote/is available.
They weren't able to do the Velux windows yesterday because of the adverse weather conditions, but they hope to do them on Monday. Today, they are finishing the plasterboarding and taking the old plaster off the two side walls, the skip has arrived and all is now well.
I have now got more used to the mess and rubble, I'm not too worried about them continuing into next week especially as that gets me out of doing the housework this week - it's not worth bothering - I shall just clean the kitchen and bathroom before we go away.
Tell you what though, this really made me laugh:
http://thecozblog.blogspot.com/2006/11/i-know-victorias-secret.html
I hope that you enjoy it.
